When Ruthie Foster first played Jazz Fest in 2008, I sat next to her as she sang during our interview on the Music Heritage Stage. At arm’s reach, her voice was as powerful and warm as it had been when channeled through the Blues Tent’s PA an hour earlier, and that voice has been her calling card so far. So far, she has brought gospel’s palpable optimism to vaguely empowered lyrics to energizing, uplifting effect, but her voice has done the heavy lifting. Her band hasn’t added much, as David Kunian observed in his review of her Live at Antone’s album, and the songs have been Toyotas—sound, reliable, but not up to the standard of her Ferrari voice.
Foster came to New Orleans last fall with producer John Chelew (John Hiatt’s Bring the Family) to record Let it Burn at Piety Street Studios with a band that included George Porter, Jr., Russell Batiste, Dave Easley, Ike Stubblefield and James Rivers. That means the grooves breathe as the songs require, and Stubblefield’s B3 evokes Saturday night as easily as Sunday morning. The album’s dominated by well-selected covers, some of which offer her more interpretive opportunities than others. British folkie John Martyn’s “Don’t Want to Know” becomes a sweet, torchy ballad, and her remake of “Ring of Fire” turns it into “Rainy Night in Georgia,” remembering the love that inspired the song with such sweet longing that it’s clear she’d go right back to the guy who burned her down. On the other hand, there’s no escaping the Bonnie Tyler-ness of Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain.”
Foster honors her folk roots with a slow, slinky version of “If I Had a Hammer” that will speak to those who value the radical remake. For me, it eventually becomes the folk song you’ve known all your life after the novelty wears off, but without the galvanizing power of the group-sing song. Less adventurous but more successful are her dalliances with gospel. “Welcome Home” opens the album, setting the big, warm voices of Foster and the Blind Boys of Alabama next to Easley’s distorted, buzzing pedal steel guitar, and “The Titanic” closes it with Foster holding her own singing a cappella against the Blind Boys.
Let it Burn doesn’t always work, but it succeeds wonderfully in the meaningful ways. It’s far more ambitious and accomplished than anything she’s cut so far, and the misses are simply chances taken that didn’t pay off as hoped.
